Citadel offers lesson in change

Democrats bring debate, spotlight to historic school

When officials announced that The Citadel would host a presidential debate Monday, local minister Nelson Rivers III went straight to his calendar to make sure he'd be there.

He wanted to be a witness, he said, when a woman and an African-American pass the gates of the historic military college in Charleston, S.C., as the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"When they stand on the stage at The Citadel, the message will be that perseverance, commitment and having God on your side will help you prevail," Rivers said. "It's going to be a great day for a lot of folk who remember what The Citadel was."

It wasn't that long ago that black students were hazed and women weren't admitted as cadets at The Citadel, a public university that traces its roots to an arsenal built in the 1820s in fear of a slave insurrection.

On Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois will join others in the Democratic field on campus for the first party-sanctioned debate of the 2008 presidential campaign cycle.

It will be a different sort of story for the school, which in the 1980s and '90s supplied a stream of news stories to feed the American conversation about affirmative action and equal opportunity.

White cadets dressed in the costume of the Ku Klux Klan once stormed the room of a black cadet and burned a cross. School officials contested the admission of its first female cadet for two years until a court ordered them to let her enroll in 1995.

In the meantime, depending on which South Carolinian is talking, things have changed dramatically or not much at all. Either way, the moment seems rich with symbolism.

"I've watched us grow through the years and build diversity," said Lt. Gen. John Rosa, a retired Air Force general who took over as head of The Citadel a year ago. "A belief in diversity makes us better."

This fall, he said, students of color will make up 9 percent of the student population -- four decades after the first black cadet donned the Citadel uniform. And female cadets will compose 6 percent of the student body, 12 years after Shannon Faulkner made her court-ordered entry into the student barracks.

Rosa, a Citadel graduate, says he returned to his alma mater to lead with a philosophy of inclusion.

"We are producing young men and women to go into the military, civilian life and workforce," Rosa said. "And that workforce is very diverse. If they are not used to living, studying and working in a diverse environment, they are not as prepared for society as they could be. I know we're a better institution with the diversity that we're building."

The Democratic National Committee decided that its first sanctioned debate would take place in South Carolina, which for the first time in 2008 is holding one of the earliest primaries.

Black voters' influence

That decision radically altered the potential influence of black voters, who make up almost half the primary electorate of South Carolina's Democrats. The change is expected to give greater voice to black voters.

Once the state was chosen as the locale, there were only a few places big enough to hold the nationally televised event. The Citadel was at the top of the list, according to state party leaders.

"It's a school with a lot of history, a good South Carolina tradition," said Patrick Norton, communications director for the state Democratic Party. "It's a perfect place to demonstrate something about South Carolina and South Carolinians."

For party officials, that means making a statement about the party's regard for the military. While all of the Democratic candidates oppose the war in Iraq, they have gone to great lengths to emphasize their support for American troops and their families.

Party leaders nationwide are mindful of the perils of an anti-war nominee who seems unpatriotic or disrespectful of the military.

"The Democratic Party believes that we have to support and work for the members of the armed forces and their families," Norton said. "Maybe in the past, Democratic candidates didn't address that as well as they could have. It's important that we show our Democratic candidates are better on this issue than the Republicans, and that we're offering real solutions that will actually make progress."

He contends that the presence of Clinton, Obama and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is Latino, underscores that message.